1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to charging systems and more particularly, to charging systems that rely on rectified charging currents.
2. Description of the Related Art
In today's marketplace, portable electronic devices have become ubiquitous. Because they are portable, nearly all of these devices include rechargeable batteries as their power supply. Such portable devices are equipped with a charger, which can be incorporated in the device or can be a stand-alone unit that can receive the portable device. In either embodiment, the charger typically receives an AC input signal and converts this signal to a DC signal, which is then fed to the cells of the battery. These types of chargers generally include a rectifier that rectifies the incoming AC signal.
A rectified signal, however, will have a series of voltage peaks and valleys. A capacitor is typically provided in the portable device to supply charging current to the battery as the signal decreases during the voltage valleys. Unfortunately, the capacitor must be relatively large to maintain the necessary voltage, which takes up valuable space in the portable device and adds to the expense of the device or charger.